Tulsa race massacre

Commemoration of the Tulsa Massacre Has Put Symbolism Over Justice for the Victims

by Victor Luckerson

"The neighborhood’s historical fame has become a kind of albatross slung over Black Tulsans’ necks, as efforts at building concrete pathways toward justice are buried under hollow symbolism."

The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth

by Brentin Mock

Victor Luckerson looks to the aftermath of the deadly attacks on the Greenwood district to argue that Tulsa's white leadership, in combination with federal highway and urban renewal programs, thwarted the efforts of Black Tulsans who were determined to rebuild. 

Investigators Discover 21 More Unmarked Graves Believed to Hold Tulsa Massacre Victims

"Black family members of the deceased were reportedly barred from witnessing the burials, as they were held under armed guard, away from their dead mothers, fathers, sons and daughters."

Is this Lawsuit the Last Hope for Justice for Survivors of the Tulsa Massacre?

The lawsuit by survivors and their descendants argues that the massacre's effects constitute an "ongoing nuisance," a theory used successfully by the state to sue a pharmaceutical company for the damages of the opioid epidemic.

Scientists Excavating Tulsa Race Massacre Site Unearth Skeleton With Bullet Wounds

Forensic analysis indicates that human remains discovered in a mass grave included a Black man who had been shot multiple times, as efforts to document the crimes continue. 

Tom Hanks: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre

by Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks weighs in on the new culture war over teaching history.

The Reconstruction Origins of "Black Wall Street"

by Alexandra E. Stern

Understanding Tulsa's Black Wall Street as a product of the rise and fall of Reconstruction helps to think more productively about how the Tulsa massacre speaks to the policy problems of racial justice. 

Robin D.G. Kelley: The Tulsa Race Massacre Went Way Beyond “Black Wall Street”

Historian Robin D.G. Kelley warns what has been truly hidden are the class politics of the Tulsa Race Massacre, both in terms of the economic agendas of the white elites who condoned and covered up violence and the impact on the city's Black working class. 

100 Years After the Tulsa Race Massacre, Meet the Forensic Anthropologist Searching for Victims' Remains

Anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield discusses her family’s ties to this history, what the excavation entails, and how the search for the remains of Tulsa Race Massacre victims fits into a long and troubling history of the careless treatment of Black bodies.

The Forgotten Women of Black Wall Street

"Emerging scholarship on Greenwood is showing that Black women were as critical to building Greenwood as they were to helping Black people survive the massacre, and rebuild the neighborhood afterward."

The Women Who Preserved the Story of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Mary E. Jones Parrish and Eddie Faye Gates researched and published some of the most important accounts of the Greenwood massacre in Tulsa, but their names and work were consigned to obscurity as white authorities suppressed knowledge of the events. 

Confronting the Myth of Objectivity: Karlos Hill Writes on the Tulsa Massacre

by David M. Perry

Karlos Hill has researched the Tulsa race massacre and developed an institute to train teachers to examine it in their classrooms. This experience has led him to question whether objectivity can be a core principle of historiography. 

'Dodging bullets' and coming home to 'nothing left': An illustrated history of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

by Todd Pendleton and Mason Callejas

The Oklahoman presents an illustrated history of the Greenwood community and the Tulsa race massacre with primary accounts. 

Biden to Travel to Oklahoma to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Tulsa Race Massacre

President Joe Biden will visit Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Historian Scott Ellsworth: Tulsa White Community Actively Covered Up 1921 Massacre

Historian Scott Ellsworth's new book "The Ground Breaking" documents efforts by White Tulsans to conceal and deny the 1921 riot that destroyed much of the city's Black commercial district. 

Goin' Back to T-Town

PBS's American Experience is offering online viewing of its 1993 documentary on the Greenwood district of Tulsa and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 

100 Years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, Lessons from my Grandfather

by Gregory B. Fairchild

The centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre is a call to consider how disadvantaged communities can gain access to capital and build the kind of prosperity that characterized the Greenwood district before 1921 and eluded it afterward, says a professor of business whose grandfather survived the riot.

What The Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed

"Piecing together archival maps and photographs, with guidance from historians, The New York Times constructed a 3D model of the Greenwood neighborhood as it was before the destruction."

How 24 Hours of Racist Violence Caused Decades of Harm

by Jeremy Cook and Jason Long

Census analysis shows how the Tulsa race massacre inaugurated a U-turn in the economic fortunes of the city's black community and gives a sense of the value of property lost. 

What Is Critical Race Theory And Why Did Oklahoma Just Ban It?

by Kathryn Schumaker

Attacks on "critical race theory" in Oklahoma's legislature are part of a political effort to prevent discussion of the state's racist past – the legislature made CRT a culture war issue as the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre approaches. Here's why we need more, not less, of the ideas behind CRT.